Detroit Free Press Business Writer

A glass of the new chai cider The Dude's Rug settles as bottling begins for it at B. Nektar, a mead-making and microbrewery in Ferndale. / Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press

About mead

The alcoholic drink is created by fermenting honey. It is sometimes called honeywine. It’s also called ambrosia and nectar of the gods. It is often flavored with spices, fruit, hops and even tea. The alcoholic content ranges from 6%-18%, and it may be carbonated or still. It also can be sweet or dry. The drink dates back to about 7,000 B.C., according to the American Mead Makers Association in Lakewood, Wash. It’s been found around the world and in Scandinavian legends.

B. Nektar Meadery, and more than a dozen other Michigan businesses, are turning honey into gold.

They’re making mead, an alcoholic beverage around for centuries that has been experiencing a renaissance, especially in Michigan, where half of the 10 top rated-meads in the world are crafted, according to ratebeer.com.

B. Nektar, which on Saturday was set to debut new craft beers and hard ciders, makes two of those top meads. To keep up with demand, it plans to open another production facility and a tap room in Ferndale, about 20,000 square feet, within a year.

Mead, which also has been called ambrosia and nectar of the gods, is created by fermenting honey and flavored with spices, fruit, hops and even tea.

“It’s similar to beer in some ways, and it’s similar to wine in other ways,” said Brad Dahlhofer, who, with his wife Kerri, owns the rapidly expanding B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale. “We try to approach mead flavors the way a chef approaches food flavor.”

Mead sales are growing, driven, in part, by home brewers and wine-makers who have realized — either out of necessity or ambition — that they can bottle and sell their elixirs. In addition to the home brewers, beekeepers are making it, too.

As a beverage, mead’s alcohol content usually ranges between 6% and 18%. It may be carbonated or still; dry or sweet. A seller in Jackson described one of its syrupy, fruit-infused batches as liquid, blueberry pie.

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Generating buzz

“In the last 5, 10 years mead has really taken off,” said Chris Webber, who, as president of the American Mead Makers Association in Lakewood, Wash., has been trying to organize the industry, collect data about sellers and generate buzz. “It’s different.”

Michigan, Webber said, has more mead-making businesses than any other state.

Among ratebeer.com’s other top 10 meads: Kuhnhenn Brewing in Warren has the No. 1 rated mead, plus another in the 7th spot. A mead from Schramm’s in Ferndale is No. 10. The No. 2 rated mead is from Poland.

Mead sales are difficult to track. But, Webber estimates they are in the $10 million to $20 million range. That’s still small in comparison to beer and wine, which have estimated sales of $100 billion and $34 billion a year, respectively.

A microbrewery in Lake Orion, 51 North Brewing Co., sells its own mead. Owner Don Gindhart said mead broadens his drink menu and seems to especially appeal to women. This summer, HopCat — the bar brand in Grand Rapids that sells craft beer and a few meads — is opening in Midtown. It would be Michigan’s largest tap beer bar.

Webber — a part-time mead maker who started the association to help lobby lawmakers for uniform standards and regulations on the beverage — said he expects the growth to continue as more meaderies open and consumers become more familiar with the beverage.

Romantic notions

Mead making for Dahlhofer, 36, went from perfecting batches with a buddy in his basement to creating it in large, stainless steel tanks.

“I think most people in the industry started the way we did,” he said. “We were home brewers.”

In 2005, he made a batch to use to toast with at his wedding. The next year, his bride was laid off from a graphic designer job; and while sipping a glass, decided their home concoction was good enough to sell. Two years later, he lost his job as a software architect, and the couple decided to open a meadery.

They took $15,000 in savings and maxed out their credit cards to invested about $100,000 into the enterprise. Since then, their sales and volume have grown every year.

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They have 18 employees. Their meads — both still and carbonated — sell in 18 states and Washington, D.C. They offers tastings on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; and they estimate that this year they’ll bottle about 100,000 gallons.

They’re working on selling overseas — in Denmark, Brazil and Thailand.

Land of fruit, honey

Chris VanSice, who with his brother Jeremy VanSice operates Bee Well Meadery in Bellaire, said their goal is to keep all the mead ingredients “as close to the area as possible.”

A high school teacher in the East Detroit district, Chris VanSice said he and his brother initially wanted to start a soda company, but, instead, decided to make mead on property in northern Michigan. He said he tries to use fruits — apples and cherries — from neighboring farms.

“You put it all together and it’s a lot of fun,” he said.

Some of the meaderies are even on bee farms. St. Ambrose Cellars in Beulah and Algomah Acres Honey House Meadery in Greenland, which also offers tours, use the honey their bees produce to make their nectar.

The Algomah Acres Honey House Meadery, which is in a church house in the Upper Peninsula, makes small batches. Some are infused with raspberry, elderberry, and chokecherry. Others include spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger.

“We’ve perfected the recipe,” said Nathon Lane, an assistant who has been working at St. Ambrose Cellars near the Sleeping Bear Dunes. “It’s selling so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up. It’s unbelievable how many people we have coming through the door that want to try mead.”